There is a substantial amount of prior art in the field of discoid lifting bodies.
As early as Apr. 18, 1905, French Pat. No. 348,617, issued to Chaplet et al, for a discoid body wherein fluid under pressure, such as air or steam, exited through annular jets to flow over an aeroplane.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,551, to Bowersox, teaches a vertical lift aircraft having a parabolic wing and a top impeller. The impeller in Bowersox is fixed, which prevents it from steering the aircraft by preferentially directing airflow over the airfoil. Further, a top impeller, such as is taught by Bowersox, will cause icing of the parabolic wing in cold climates. Finally, Bowersox teaches a side-mounted cockpit, which substantially reduces pilot visibility.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,009, to Wharton, teaches an aircraft having a discoid parabolic wing structure and a top impeller. Wharton is also subject to icing problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,108,652, to Coanda, teaches a slightly modified version of the external fluid supply discoid airfoil taught by Chaplet.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,216, issued in 1961, to Johnson, teaches a radial flow lift device wherein the pilot sits below a top-mounted impeller. Johnson uses a parabolic wing and a top impeller. Johnson also teaches external rudders and a fixed impeller, which is common to all prior art known to the inventor.
The closest and best prior art known to the inventor is U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,747, issued to Lent, in 1962, which teaches an aircraft with a discoid sustaining airfoil. Lent teaches a large number of embodiments, most of which are ground effects machines. Lent does however, as illustrated in its FIGS. 2 and 3, show a device whereby, to quote Lent, "another object of this invention is to provide a doughnut shaped craft having a circular wing of airfoil cross-section and means to pass a stream of air against said wing. The aerodynamic action of the air against the wing permitting the saucer doughnut-shaped craft not only to rise vertically but also to hover over the same position indefinitely or move sideways or in any other direction under the control of the navigator and crew." (Lent, Column 2, lines 53-61).
As compared to the present invention, Lent teaches a fixed impeller, a curved top airfoil, and does not teach peripheral inlets or control means.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,853, issued in 1963, to Kline, teaches a vertical take-off and landing airfoil having an impeller that draws air from both above and below the aircraft and directs it over an annular airfoil having an aerodynamic cross-section to lift the aircraft.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a substantially discoid vertical lift aircraft that avoids the icing problems encountered by previous similar aircraft.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a substantially discoid vertical lift aircraft having a straight airfoil that is capable of making use of the jet exhaust from a turbo-jet engine to produce lift.
Yet still another purpose of the present invention is to provide a novel, frustoconical control means for directing the output of a turbojet engine in a controllable manner radially across a discoid airfoil.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a substantially discoid vertical lift aircraft with the ability to use turbojet engines to produce lateral thrust.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an aircraft with amphibious ability.
Still other and further objects of the present invention will become evident upon reading the specifications and claims that follow.